Valve has used a term not used for its previous hardware (Steam Controller, Steam Machine, Steam Link, Valve Index).

Valve has come out with a pdf introducing the Steam Deck. It can be found in English here. Valve created it because they launched the device in Asia, but we’ll return to that. Valve is planning for the long term with Steam Deck and SteamOS, which means we’re not discussing a technology that won’t get updated once. The term “multi-generational product line” is critical!

But let’s look at what they say under the emphatic headline “The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS”: “In the future, Valve will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market. This is a multi-generational product line. Valve will support Steam Deck and SteamOS well into the foreseeable future. We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than Steam Deck’s first version.” That’s quite a statement from Gabe Newell’s company.

But let’s talk about the book, which is also available in Japanese, Korean, and traditional Chinese, as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have also received Steam Deck pre-order options. It is the company’s way of introducing gamers to what it is and why it might be worth investing in one (portable gaming is prevalent in Japan; speaking of Japan, the company will be giving away the book in physical format at the Tokyo Game Show!)

The chapters are: Valve’s philosophy on product creation and keeping consumers happy; the history of Steam and the Steam Deck and why it came about; working with Komodo (which helped them expand), and all of it is accompanied by lots of pictures in a rather formal and polite way. As you can download the pdf in English, it’s well worth a read.

Source: PCGamer, PCGamer